BBC One

I would agree that the majority of the R&M idents were wonderfully directed and scored but as a brand they were much weaker than the current Circles. Whatever your opinion is regarding 'is a circle a strong enough symbol?' at least it is a strong, clear concept for a series of idents to revolve around. The dance theme was not a strong concept due to its lack of a visual hook (colour alone isn't enough) or a clear meaning. In their quest to be meaningful they actually came across very meaningless, saying little about the channel they were symbolising. They always felt very empty to me, as if they were missing a critical component that would have made them click.

As I have said, I wouldn't rank the Circles too highly in terms of great TV idents but I would argue that as a brand they are superior to BBC One's previous package.

I take it this is a regional variant of this year's Great North Run trail and the standard version promotes it also being available on 5 Live rather than BBC Newcastle? Can't imagine why they would promote the availability of coverage on Radio Newcastle nationwide.

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w191/2007TopGearDog/gnr09trail.jpg

re the SCD trail. Having seen it in full for the first time yesterday I would be very surprised if an ident hasn't been produced. There are far too many circle references in there.

are they now referring to it simply as "BBC Newcastle" ? I'd have thought radio would have been mentioned somewhere.

Despite the press release stating the changes would only take effect off air, the 'Radio' tag has been dropped on air and in TV plugs. It's just BBC Newcastle now.

Considering they've spent the last 2 years tying all BBC Radio services together by ensuring 'BBC Radio' appears in every station logo, this seems a very bizarre decision. Unless they want to make a distinction between national and local. Either way I'm sure everyone will carry on calling their local station Radio x regardless.

It looks as though the word 'radio' is gradually being phased out of the local radio station names; as well as Newcastle, in the last couple of years Radios Oxford and Guernsey have dropped it, and this year BBC Radio Wiltshire and BBC Radio Swindon have become BBC Wiltshire, and BBC Southern Counties Radio is now BBC Sussex and BBC Surrey.

I think the idea is to combine the branding of the radio stations with that of the local websites - although that doesn't work in all cases - and note that all of the new local radio logos introduced last year omit the word 'radio'. So we now have the odd situation where the logo for BBC 6 Music contains the word 'radio', whereas the logo for BBC Radio Berkshire doesn't.

It could be to emphasis the BBC. We're seeing BBC shoehorned in to all the Radio 1 jingles, even if it sounds a bit forced and awkward: with the reasoning being to promote the fact it's from the BBC, as apparently some people are stupid and didn't know that.

With local radio, it's already got BBC in the name, but most of the time people call it say, "Radio Suffolk", and someone may have started whining about the brand being diluted, so if you scrap the word Radio, the station is BBC Suffolk and the hope is that people will call it that instead.

Whatever the reason, I think it's silly.

Apparently soon, there is to be a new corporate jingle/imaging package for all BBC local radio stations. I managed to get a quick listen recently from someone with access to these things. It's rather wimpy and bland, and IMO will be a real backward step for some stations who've got strong imaging at the moment. Having said that, what I heard may not be the finished product, so it may yet be tweaked.

I'd hazard a guess that once this is introduced (I was told next month), stations will drop the 'Radio' from their names on air.

That would be very odd, seeing it was only last week that BBC Sussex & BBC Surrey introduced a new (sung) jingle package.

Very strange... unless they've started the roll-out already, and Sussex and Surrey are the first. Having not heard their package, I don't know if it's the corporate one or not.

Or maybe I've been completely misled! If so, not sure what it was that I was played.

I wouldn't have thought so, the package uses a five-note jingle ('B-B-C Sus-sex'/'B-B-C Sur-rey') so I can't see 'BBC Merseyside' or 'BBC Coventry and Warwickshire' fitting into it somehow.

I've noticed on North West Tonight they still plug the radio stations as BBC Radio Merseyside and BBC Radio Manchester but the graphics just state BBC Merseyside and BBC Manchester. To me, BBC Manchester is the building, not the radio station...

BBC WM too. Not BBC Radio WM.


Well, they might revert to BBC CWR.